Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
From the CUSA board...
Southern Miss president Shelby Thames (Shelby.F.Thames@usm.edu) sat down with the man who plead guilty to his role in the beating death of a high school student. The talk went so well, Southern Miss will offer the convict a football scholarship and a "second chance".
Linebacker Marcus Raines (6'-3" 230), plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter for his role in the fatal beating of Christopher O'Leary at a May 19, 2000, party in Palmdale, CA. After a confrontation, Littlerock QB Richard Newton hit O'Leary, knocking him to the pavement. Future Golden Eagle Raines kicked him in the head "like a football" as O'Leary's girlfriend tried to revive him. O'Leary would die from the wounds days later.
Raines served one year in a juvenile institution and two years in a boot camp before enrolling at Pasadena City College, where he was an all-conference first-team defender. Raines had committed to Kansas State in December, but the scholarship offer was rescinded after booster backlash resulting from Raines' criminal record.
Following the meeting with Southern Miss, Raines announced that USM had extended the scholarship offer: "They believed in my character and decided to scholarship me," Raines said of Southern Miss by phone Monday from Pasadena, where he is still attending junior college. "They asked me a lot of questions, but they believed in me."
Southern Miss athletic director Richard Giannini (Richard.Giannini@usm.edu) confirmed as much. "He didn't hide anything from us," said athletic director Giannini. "He deserves a second opportunity. He's dedicated his life to being a positive mentor, helping people like him."
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
WOW! They were impressed with his character, but he kicked him in the head while his girlfriend was trying to revive him.
I wonder if they offered ted bundy a scholly too.
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
Must've been a REALLY bad recruiting year!
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
Be careful about throwing stones. Some of those guys graduate.
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
Why wasn't lsu all on top of this guy?
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawgbert
Why wasn't lsu all on top of this guy?
Because Gerry DiNardo is no longer our head coach.
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
I can't believe he got off so light. That sounds more like second degree murder. What an asshole coward that would kick somebody in the head while he is on the ground knocked out. That SOB should still be in prison. I guess USM is in bad need of a LB. I wonder how Rice, SMU, and Tulsa feel about being in a conference with a school that recruits murderers?
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
Quote:
Originally Posted by DONW
I can't believe he got off so light. That sounds more like second degree murder. What an asshole coward that would kick somebody in the head while he is on the ground knocked out. That SOB should still be in prison.
The courts take things easy on Juvy's hoping that they learn from their mistakes, esp if he plead guilty.. cause that means that the DA likely cut him a deal. The DA would have had to make the jury believe that the kid was trying to kill him to charge him with murder and take the risk of him getting off with nothing. That's the whole point (basically) of the charge of Manslaughter... it was a slam dunk for the DA if he had plead not guilty and went to trail.
The think that i'm curious about is how his criminal record got released to the public. I work for the S'port Police in the Forensics, and fingerprint Juvy's all the time. Believe me when I say that keeping their records private is priority number 1!!! We can't even talk to our loved ones about that happened, which is HARD!
On that note.... yea, the kid is just another punk if that's truely what happened. If he has learned from his mistake, and doesn't get in anymore trouble, then i'd say good for USM for giving the young man a chance.
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
Doc, you sound like a left-wing radical Jesus obeyer and you and I both will get red marks; but, yes, 17-year-olds who committed major crimes and didn't get caught are well distributed among the rich and famous. So maybe giving a chance to a juvenile felon makes sense.
When it is hard, it is difficult to tell her anything she wants to know. That statement is something almost everyone can relate to! Maybe it will get us some of our green back!
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
Well- In my opinion, calling this guy a "juvenile" does nothing to reduce what he did. Are you telling me that an 18 year old knows something that a 16 or 17 year-old doesn't? The only justification in my eyes for giving juveniles a break is that the younger the offender, the more likely it is their first offense and can be rehabilitated. All in all, I am for this kid getting another chance. He served his time.
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
Quote:
Originally Posted by DogsWin
Raines served one year in a juvenile institution and two years in a boot camp before enrolling at Pasadena City College, where he was an all-conference first-team defender. Raines had committed to Kansas State in December, but the scholarship offer was rescinded after booster backlash resulting from Raines' criminal record.
Following the meeting with Southern Miss, Raines announced that USM had extended the scholarship offer: "They believed in my character and decided to scholarship me," Raines said of Southern Miss by phone Monday from Pasadena, where he is still attending junior college. "They asked me a lot of questions, but they believed in me."
"
What about the dead kids "second chance". Give me a break, this kid should still be in jail. I hope we would follow Kansas St. in having a booster backlash if TECH brought in someone like this. I have no sympathy for the kid at all.
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
Quote:
Originally Posted by DocMarvin362
The courts take things easy on Juvy's hoping that they learn from their mistakes, esp if he plead guilty.. cause that means that the DA likely cut him a deal. The DA would have had to make the jury believe that the kid was trying to kill him to charge him with murder and take the risk of him getting off with nothing. That's the whole point (basically) of the charge of Manslaughter... it was a slam dunk for the DA if he had plead not guilty and went to trail.
The think that i'm curious about is how his criminal record got released to the public. I work for the S'port Police in the Forensics, and fingerprint Juvy's all the time. Believe me when I say that keeping their records private is priority number 1!!! We can't even talk to our loved ones about that happened, which is HARD!
On that note.... yea, the kid is just another punk if that's truely what happened. If he has learned from his mistake, and doesn't get in anymore trouble, then i'd say good for USM for giving the young man a chance.
If you kick someone in the head like you're kicking a football while he is unconcious, I would have to say you are trying to kill him. People who commit violent crimes like this should have to serve a lot of time in prison. They must be held accountable for their actions.
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
The kid is trash. I don't look for him to be anything but a discipline problem. I had a good friend at LSUMCS who used to always say that the best thing we could do for the American justice system would be to hang all of the judges and start over. He might have been on to something there.
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikedog
Well- In my opinion, calling this guy a "juvenile" does nothing to reduce what he did. Are you telling me that an 18 year old knows something that a 16 or 17 year-old doesn't? The only justification in my eyes for giving juveniles a break is that the younger the offender, the more likely it is their first offense and can be rehabilitated. All in all, I am for this kid getting another chance. He served his time.
Mike, I don't know which side your on... lol, it sounds like your telling me that i'm wrong, yet you say that you agree with giving the guy another chance. For everyone's information.... 17 year olds are legally adults here in LA, so he would have been tried as an adult. And kids DO learn more, and are smarter at 17-18 than 14-15. If you don't believe that, go to a local high school and observe the kids hanging around, go talk to them and prove me wrong. Now with that said, nothing excuses what he did, and I personally wish that he would have been locked up until he was 21, but that didn't happen. We must remember.. he'll only go away from the thing that the DA's don't have to work hard on. Like I said earlier, Manslaughter - guilty, no question. Murder - (also guilty) but the DA would have to work HARD to convince every member of the jury that he had the intentions of killing him when he kicked. The Defense will find a way with their words to put that a small doubt in the jury's heads. It SUCKS! I hate those kind of lawyers, and just wish that they'd go jump off a bridge holding each other's hands, but once again... that won't happen.
Holy Crap, I just went and looked for the whole story. http://www.jamesblatt.com/athleteconviction.htm There was another kid that got his sentence reduced to a misdemeanor just so he could go and play football for Oregon. He only got 1 year in prison. The Raines kid and another kid still were convicted of felonies and got 4 years of jail time. So now which one is fair??
We got a 14 year old juvenile the other day that found a gun on the side of the road with some friends and decided to start shooting in into a neighborhood block party. I can't say what he was charged with, but even told the kid that he was getting off light. The officer that brought him in just said, "That's how things are now days, and we have to deal with it until we start taking power away from the lawyers. They are screwing up the whole system and it makes some people in law enforcement lose their passion." How can you argue with what he said?
I wish that USM would allow him on the football team, but NOT give him the scholarship. Escpecially considering that in giving that guy his scholarship, they had to deny someone else that didn't have that kind of thing hanging over his head. This is how I would feel if this guy were to come to Tech, play as a walk on. Earn your spot on the roster.
For the people that want to red light me, please tell me what it is that you disagree with. I wouldn't care if it read something like "read (screen name) post for my disaproval. Did I say something offensive? Do you just disagree? I'm open-minded and love hearing both sides of things, so bring it! I LOVE this stuff!
Re: Southern Miss signed manslaughter felon
we offered him a scholarship and he gave a verbal committment, but he has not officially signed with us yet.